NRC won't come to Bengal, no one will be pushed out of the state: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is known for her fiercest criticism of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), on Friday reiterated that no such exercise will be held in her state. Speaking at the State Secretariat in Nabanna, Mamata said, ''NRC will not come to Bengal. Nobody will be pushed out of Bengal. People who have been living in Bengal for so many years, they'll stay here the same way.''

The firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo also accused the BJP of using NRC as a ''political tool.''

Allaying concerns, the TMC leader urged the Bengal voters to check if their name in included in the voter list or not.

''The voter list is being renewed, so I would urge you to check whether your name is in the voter list or not,'' she added.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nabanna: Voter list is being renewed, so I would urge you to check whether your name is in the voter list or not. https://t.co/dJ7Nx1Qhbu

— ANI (@ANI) September 20, 2019

Mamata had on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah during which she had categorically told him that NRC is ''not needed'' in Bengal.

Mamata said that she had flagged several irregularities in the NRC exercise in Assam to the Home Minister. Mamata's meeting with Shah came just a day after he had reiterated the need for a “countrywide NRC".

“We have given a letter to the Home Minister that the NRC in Assam has left nearly 19 lakh people out. Some are Bengali speaking. Some are Hindi speaking. Some Gorkha and some local Assamese are also there. We said genuine voters must get a chance and feel that they are Indian and that’s why we had come to discuss the issue with the home minister. He didn’t say anything about an NRC in Bengal and it is not needed either," Banerjee said in New Delhi.

The West Bengal Chief Minister further said that Shah had assured her that he “would look into the problem". 

This meeting with Shah took place a day after Banerjee met PM Narendra Modi. The West Bengal Chief Minister, after a spell of 15 months, met PM Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register maintained by the Government of India containing names and certain relevant information for identification of all genuine Indian citizens.

In Assam`s final document of the NRC, over 19 lakh didn`t find their names mentioned.